The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1887-02-20
FACTS ABOUT THE WATER.
TIE BARTLETT SUPPLY SCHEME DE-
SCRIBED AND CRITICISED,

expenditures Tor Water Rights and
Plant
An advertisement in another column of
this mornings NEWS gives notice of
meeting to be held in the Board of FL
nance rooms tomorrow evening on the
water-supply question. The advertise
ment requests the presence of engineers
who can give information that may be in
teresting to the citizens, and of all persons
who are interested in the securing of
supply of decent drinking water for this
long suffering community. In times past
the water question has been treated
entirely from theoretical point of view.
But the need of better water supply has
become SO pressingly urgent and is be
coming dsily go more and more .ssEssngly
urgent, that it is being treated, by citizens
and officials alike, with something of the
attention that should be given to practi-
cal reform on the eve of omplishment;
and there is little doubt that from this
on the movement will be conducted on
lines looking to the achievement of actual
results
THE SUNDAY MORNING News finds ample
excuse for the surrender of considerable of
its space this morning to the presentation
of facts bearing upon the question, in the
overtowering Importance of the issue. 1t
has been its policy always, in times of
public agitation. to gather all information
bearing upon the topic uppermost in the
public mind, and to present it, without
prejudice to either side in the controversy
to its readers. In pursuance of this policy
reporters of this paper were sent out yes
terday to make investigations of the water
question.
The most likely and aggressive of the
private schemes for suppling the city SO
far brought to public notice, is that which
is being promoted by John r. Bartlett;
and the reporter was specially instructed
to see him. Mr.. Bartlett, when found at
his office in the Union Bank Building, on
the corner of Wall street and Broadway,
proved to be big-eyed and big-brained
gentleman-as affable as he is smart, who
made it his pleasure to lay all the informa-
ton he had at the service of the newspa-
per man.
He said, when questioned, that the i'm
purity of the water supplied to Jersey City
and Newark was brought to his attention
two years or more. He hesltated, when So
licited, to risk his money, or induce others
to risk theirs in an enterprise looking to
the furnishing of a better supply; but
finally became convinced that the boppor-
tunity was a good one, and had careful ell
quiry made. He had not gone into the
scheme from philanthropic motives, and
did net venture upon it till he had satisfied
himself that it would prove to be good
business investment, with promise of
reasonably fair dividend. Even when he
concluded that he might interest himself
in it, he proceeded with tgreat caution, and
soon found that water had been adjudica-
ted to be property by the New Jersey
courts, and that most o. the valuable water
franchises in the State had been granted to
the Society for Establishing Useful Manu-
fs ctures at Paterson. Ex.Chancellor Will
hanson, Ex-Governor Bedle, Governor Alb
lett and other learned lawyers who had
investigated the question carefully for him,
had advised him that there could be no
question that the Society owned all the
wa,er that flowed from its tributaries into
the Passaic River over the Great Falls at
Paterson, and that the valuabIes water
ffancnises beyond that were the property
of the Dundee Power Company The Pat
erson Society net only had tho right to
store the waters of the Passaic water shed
10 run the mills that located within its
area, but they were, and are, he said, the
owners of ell the water that flowed to and
over the Great Falls. A great volume
of water that is not utlllzod
by the Paterson Society for the
purposes of its business, pours over
the Falls, and that which they need for
their factory patrons is but 1.-THE of that
which flows over the bed OF tn river. The
Paterson Society could not, uad,r their
charter, divert any of this super-abuni-
ance. They were chartered only as water
Eo,. ~
But as they owned the overhow-the
waste-as we'll as tnat needed to run their
mills, they had the right to sell it. And he
made 'sade quate arrangem ents' with them
for the purchase of this overflow. When
he had accomplished this he encountered
another obstacle. The overflow in seasons
of freshet Is enormous. In seasons of
drouth the river and its tributaries flow 50
sluggishly as to fail even in it's service to
mill owners 1t would therefore become
necessary to store the superabundance in
the wet seasons to have supply in the dry
seasons, and the necessity of meeting this
emergency led TO tie necessity of providing
reservoirs for the storage OF the water.
With this end in view, he and his associates
have purchased Great Not5h in the Orange
Mountains Grand Mountain retervoir near
Paterson, Mscopin Lake and bunker Pond
in Passaic county, and Split Rock and
Montville lakes in Morris county These
ars all natural reservoirs He has pur-
chased the land in the vicinity of these
lakes and other natural storage places, and
proposes, by damming and otherwise, to
raise the water-level in each so that they
will store enough water to yield hundred
million gallons day to the communities
east of the Orange Mountains which his
company hopes to supply.
The preliminary surveys, the examina-
TONS of title, the services of lawyers, the
purchase of water rights, and the purchase
of land over which the little lakes mem
toned are to be expanded and flooded tor
hn.. I,rnr1, %